Rural News

Charles Thompson, who tenant farms 450 acres of arable land near Hitchin, spoke to Farmers Guide about his recent trips to deliver pickup trucks and supplies to the front line in Ukraine, and his mission to find more vehicles to help the war effort.

Farmers in Suffolk are being urged to maintain vigilance following a string of GPS farm equipment thefts in Eye, Bedingfield and Friston within the last week.

British farmers are critical to the UK food supply chain and protecting the nation’s valuable and vulnerable environments. Technology can play a key part in that, making it the focus of the South West’s freshest agri-tech event.

The government revealed additional funding will go towards helping farmers better manage slurry storage and store and use water more efficiently as part of the new Plan for Water announced yesterday (4th April).

At a conference hosted by Scrutton Bland earlier this year, Kerriann McLackland from the Environment Bank talked about the various ways farmers can capitalise on creating and selling biodiversity net gain (BNG) units to developers, while still receiving income from BPS and environmental schemes.

Montrose daffodil and potato farmer Willie Officer is seeing the results five years on from hosting Farming For A Better Climate (FFBC)’s pilot project. Taking a more environmental approach to some on-farm practices he has seen crop management improve and costs reduce.

The Royal Bath & West Society have introduced a Farm Vet of the Future Award, which seeks to recognise and celebrate the next generation of farm vets.

An unnamed processor currently under investigation by the FSA’s National Food Crime Unit (NFCA) has allegedly been passing up to tens of thousands of tonnes of imported pork per week as British in what is possibly the biggest food fraud and safety scandal since Horsegate in 2013.

The Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) stands firm in its commitment that the Royal Highland Show (RHS) will continue to showcase the best in Scottish agriculture, despite a call by PETA for the award-winning four-day event to become exclusively vegan.

A joint message has been issued from union presidents following summit in Belfast. The four leading agricultural organisations across the UK have repeated calls for UK Government to recognise food security concerns and extend the Energy and Trade Intensive Industry scheme (ETII) to include those sectors of agriculture heavily reliant on energy.

Having grown up with a farming background, 17-year-old Libby Kate Lawrence is now working 12-hour lambing shifts on various farms in Suffolk and Essex. In an interview with Farmers Guide, she spoke about her farming experiences and plans to travel the world working with livestock.

Following calls from the farming sector for more opportunities to access the carbon market, the government has today (30th March) launched two new schemes as part of its commitment to develop a new harmonised approach for measuring on farm emissions.